Posts in "Journal"

Update #24 · Apr 6, 2013
First an update on the ZPG Closed Alpha: we are predicting a 4 week window until Closed Alpha launch. We are using this time to polish our current build and optimize our codebase. Please check our forums for continued updates on the ZPG Closed Alpha release here: http://www.zombieplaygroundgame.com/forum/

Here’s a few more details for those of you who contributed to the Closed Alpha Tier (and we know who you are!):

Closed Alpha will be a Single Player Survival Mode
– How long can you survive an imaginary horde??.

Steam Integration
Leaderboards – If connected to Steam, you will have the option to save your survival time to a leaderboard (of course to show off how awesome you are).
There will be different weapons/items (with varied stats) scattered randomly throughout the map for pickup.
While there is some character customization that feature will be limited for now.
Dev Map/Testing Arena will be included to play
*Note:

Final Inventory System will not be implemented upon Closed Alpha release.
GUI is minimal atm (not arted).

**Bonus**

Everyone who backed the Closed Alpha Tier will be receiving 5 Closed Alpha keys. One for yourself, and 4 extra to do with as you wish. We will be contacting you all via email closer to Closed Alpha launch. Time to make some friends!!

Dev Look: Character Controller & School Map01

Last but not least, we have a Developers Look, showcasing the current state of our character controller and the first footage of the level which will be used for Closed Alpha, School Map01. What you will see in the video is very much a work in progress. This footage is not representative of the finished product, and should not be considered final by any means (We promise it will be much cooler!). Closed Alpha will include access to the Testing Arena seen in the video. We hope you like it. =))

Update #23 · Feb 1, 2013
Hello and Happy New Year everyone; we’re back with a new update for ZPG. The game is going going going; we have a ton of momentum and are on schedule for an end of March Closed Alpha. Our knuckles are bl00dy in order to give those that have Closed Alpha access something playable. Extreme thanks for the continued support, patience, and excitement for this game, we heart you big time and couldn’t do this without you. On to shiny objects!

ZPG – MUSIC – ‘Janitor Strikes Back’

To set the mood right from the outset, here’s another quick excerpt from the incomparable Shawn Lee. Hope you guys enjoy; it’s Boss Fight time!

Now it’s time for a quick flick of some Shader and Lighting tests done in Unity3D for ZPG. This is no frills, no lens effects, no bells or whistles, just baked Gamma lighting, some light probes, and our base Shader. We thought it might be cool to check out!

A new enemy has joined the line up of ZPG, The Nurse. The question being, “Will she help you or hinder you?” Both perhaps? If you’re not feeling well, you might want to think twice about coming to her for a fix-up. Which is your favorite? Concepts by Jason Chan.

We’ve found some friends over at a company called Allegorithmic; they are the guys who make Substance Designer and B2M (http://www.allegorithmic.com/). If you didn’t already know, their software is very sweet, and we are more than stoked to implement it into our texturing pipeline. Among other bells and whistles, this tool will basically help us create a lot more, with a lot less resources, so we’re very happy to bring this software on board. Be sure to check them out and thanks Allegorithmic!

ZPG – 3D Sculpts – Puppet Enemies

If you’ve seen the concepts, you’ll know our Puppet Enemies come in a few varieties, a cat, a monkey, a bunny, and a very large bear. Here’s a few shots of the 3D Sculpts made for these guys. For scale reference, the bear is quite big, about 4 or 5 times the size of the other puppets in-game. Let us know what you think!

Progress Report – ZPG Closed Alpha Push

Hi everyone. We’re back with another ZPG monthly update. First thing’s first, we want to inform everyone that the decision has been made to push the ZPG Closed Alpha release date. The ZPG Closed Alpha release is now slated for March. This also effects the Open Alpha release, but by what amount depends mostly upon how well Closed Alpha goes. So – we know what you’re thinking: How the…what the…who when??? Here’s the break-down:

1. Steamworks Works – Throwing a game on Steam for people to download isn’t rocket science. We upload it, you download it. For ZPG we are striving for more than just that. There are several services Valve offers that we certainly want ZPG to leverage, some being: matchmaking, Valve anti-cheat (VAC), voice, achievements, Workshop integration, and more. If we were using the Source Engine instead of Unity3D, it would make things much easier for us from the perspective of integrating these services. But, having said that, just because things are very tricky, does not mean they are impossible. We are feature greedy for ZPG, so we want to integrate as many of Valve’s services available through Steam as we can (plus a bag of chips). So we are making it work. The Closed Alpha push is the TLC needed to make this a potential reality with the ultimate goal of making ZPG a completely seamless experience.

2.

We breifly mentioned an Artificial Intellegence (AI) system we are using for Zombie Playground back in Update #20. To get into more detail, it is a system that plugs into Unity3D called ‘RAIN{one}’ and is made by a company called Rival{Theory} (http://rivaltheory.com/). Upon digging into Rain{one} for ZPG, we found we had some questions, comments, and workflow ideas, so we attempted to contact Rival{Theory} in order to hopefully begin a dialogue. As it turns out, that was the best thing we could have done. Not only are they great folks, but now we are working together to make this game as awesome as it should be. Who better to give the keys to the car than the person who actually made it? The team at Rival{Theory} was so jazzed, they have decided to actually trump themselves, and incorporate an even more robust AI system for Zombie Playground. They will first be removing RAIN{one} from our current ZPG build in order to replace it with their newest endeavor, a previously unannounced techonogy called Sentio. Sentio is a much larger platform which does include RAIN technology. Since the Sentio technology is still super secret, super safe, we’ll be releasing specifics once we’re given the green light. You can check it out here: http://rivaltheory.com/sentio. Showcasing this new technology in Zombie Playground sounds just amazingly cool to us, and we hope you’ll feel the same.

All of us here at MB are committed to making Zombie Playground a game that is, above all else, fun to play. We have been spending the bulk of our time getting ZPG to feel good, responsive, and steadily inching towards that ‘fun’ thing. Gameplay is our A-Number1. The game absolutely has to feel good and be fun before we’ll be satisfied.

3D Sculpts – More Janitor Love – !SPOILER ALERT!

We’ve got more Janitor 3D sculpt love for you today; one of which is an exclusive ‘not yet revealed’ Janitor. So, here’s your SPOILER ALERT, close your eyes and DO NOT scroll down if you don’t want to know!

But can you really stop your mouse wheel from scrolling down on it’s own?? CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE!

Two-Hand Weapons – Concept to 3D Coolness!

So there is this guy who likes to draw. Luckily he comes on our ZPG forum from time to time to show everyone his crazy skills, and illustrate his dedication to inventing cool ideas for Zombie Playground. You might know him from our ZPG forums as ‘GillBates’, but upon unmasking the moniker, we discovered his real name is Jomaro Kindred. Well, if you’ve ever seen his stuff, you probably know what’s coming next. This guy absolutely rocks! So much in fact, that we yanked him aboard the ZPG train! (don’t worry we reinserted his arm afterward).

We think it’s just incredible to make relationships like this through a game idea and a forum, how cool is that!? There’s nothing better than bringing a community member on board who is as stoked about ZPG as we are. Jason Chan and Jomaro teaming up on concepts is the coolest ever. So, with no further ado, here is a very small taste of the many new weapon ideas from the man himself, Jomaro Kindred. The first image you’ll see is a selection of his two-handed weapon concepts, followed by their conversion into the 3D realm. Much love also goes out to our 3D team for getting these models spot on to Jomaro’s concepts! Good work guys! Please also look up some of Jomaro’s additional character concept art on our ZPG forum, and on his own site (http://kindredconcepts.com/), we promise you won’t be disappointed. And who knows, you just might see…

Enjoy the art and rock on Jomaro, you are awesome! We heart you! CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE!

New Music

Last but never least, indeed we do have a new sound clip from Zombie Playground to share called ‘Zombie Rider.’ Shawn Lee is a composing animal, completing over 10 tracks for ZPG. So get out your headphones, jack up the volume and have a good listen; there’s a lot of creepy-cool subtlety on the build-up of this one, and we’ve left you just a taste of the crescendo’s payoff. Feel free to give Shawn a shout out in the comments! Enjoy.

As always, if you’d like to join us on our ZPG forum, please head over to http://www.zombieplaygroundgame.com/forum/. Expect another ZPG update around this same time next month! We wish you all a jolly, safe holiday season and a Happy New Year! Full steam ahead.

Zombie Playground has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the project. The campaign will run from May 22nd until June 26th, 6:00pm EDT. This funding campaign will ultimately determine the fate of Zombie Playground, so we humbly ask for your support.

For those of you not familiar with Kickstarter, it is a crowd funding website designed to give consumers the opportunity to fund projects that they want, instead of waiting and hoping that large companies do the same. So many great ideas are squashed because financial investers don’t believe that they will sell to the masses, so Kickstarter gives up and coming groups the chance to prove them wrong. Funding for large projects requires large sums of money. Large sums of money usually comes with a lot of strings attached, which makes it difficult for small teams to stay true to their initial ideas. However, if we are able to fund Zombie Playground from contributions from fans, we won’t have the normal strings attached that usually comes from working with big name publishers. For more info on Kickstarter and the Zombie Playground Kickstarter campaign, head here:

Welcome to the official Zombie Playground game development site! We will be chronicling the development of the Zombie Playground game from this day forward sharing ideas, concept art, in-progress production art, and more. Stay tuned to see what we’ve been working on!

Be sure to sign up in the forums to join the Zombie Playground community so that you can share your thoughts with the team and other community members. We are still in the early stages of the game’s development so new ideas are being tossed around every day. If you have something that you think would be awesome to see in game, don’t be afraid to share!